Cecil Harmsworth King

1 portrait

by Graham Vivian Sutherland
oil on canvas, 1969
36 1/4 in. x 28 3/4 in. (920 mm x 731 mm)
Bequeathed by the sitter's widow, Dame Ruth King, 2002
Primary Collection
NPG 6613

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Sitterback to top

Cecil Harmsworth King (1901-1987), Newspaper magnate and writer. Sitter in 10 portraits.

Artistback to top

Graham Vivian Sutherland (1903-1980), Painter. Artist associated with 23 portraits, Sitter in 61 portraits.

This portraitback to top

This portrait was commissioned for the Board Room of IPC. But even as King sat for Sutherland, its fate was overtaken by events. For in 1968, King, convinced that the country under Harold Wilson was heading for financial disaster, proposed an emergency government under Lord Mountbatten. Advised by Solly Zuckerman that this would be treason, Mountbatten refused. After an inflammatory piece in the Mirror, King was dismissed by IPC and retired to Ireland with his second wife, Ruth Railton, the founder of the National Youth Orchestra. The portrait never hung in the Board Room and was given to the sitter by the incoming Chairman.